The 8 best-dressed men of the week

Bar of the week: Clean Air Bar with Ketel One vodka

Every week, we scour the city to find the best bars our capital has to offer. Whether you're a cocktail kind of guy, or a man who enjoys a decent draft beer, there's a GQ-worthy drinking spot to suit every taste.

The 8 best-dressed men of the week

Bar of the week: Clean Air Bar with Ketel One vodka

Every week, we scour the city to find the best bars our capital has to offer. Whether you're a cocktail kind of guy, or a man who enjoys a decent draft beer, there's a GQ-worthy drinking spot to suit every taste.

Two things are poised to turn the car industry upside down: autonomous technology and electricity. It’s a scenario that’s bringing lots of new startups into the fray: battery tech and clever software is more important than traditional automotive know-how, and it’s also leading to a paradigm shift in the car industry’s geopolitical-axis... towards China.

But not all the startups are absolute beginners or bear a Beijing postcode. No one in automotive history has designed as many drop-dead beautiful cars as Torinese carrozzeria Pininfarina: 88 years in the game, and creator of countless Alfa Romeos, Ferraris, Lancias and Maseratis, without ever building an entire car of its own. Until now.

A new company, Automobili Pininfarina, has been hived off from the Pininfarina SPA mothership, with a plan to build up to (but no more than) 90 pure-electric hypercars, at a cost of approximately £1.7 million a pop.

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The car, codenamed PF0, is still in development, but designer Luca Borgogno gave GQ an exclusive preview. The body will be made of carbon fibre, the head-lights connect in a continuous strip left-to-right, while the batteries will be housed behind the occupants and along the sides. (The electrical architecture will be co-developed with another EV outfit, Rimac.) The cockpit, meanwhile, is truly fabulous, with a "vanishing point" aspect to the main display, and a thrillingly driver-centric layout. Naturally, it will feature the finest materials, although as the product of the world’s first sustainable luxury car company, new techniques are being explored. (Stella McCartney is cited as an influence.)

Powerful EVs are capable of outrageous performance, but even in this context the PF0 is crazy fast. Zero to 62mph, its creators claim, will take less than two seconds, 186mph less than 12 and the top speed is likely to be 250mph, with a projected range of 310 miles from the batteries (not if 250mph is a regular part of your daily commute).

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But exactly how real is all this? Former boss of Audi India, Michael Perschke, is Automobili Pininfarina’s CEO. "We now face a 30-month race to deliver our promise and the Pininfarina family’s dream: sustainable luxury, hyper-performance and beautiful electric cars branded Pininfarina," he says. "PFO will define us by its looks, performance and respectful integration of the Pininfarina heritage."

The real juice here is in the backstory and lies with the company that acquired Pininfarina in 2015, following various projects together: Indian industrial giant Mahindra. The company’s urbane executive chairman Anand Mahindra – a graduate of Harvard’s film school rather than a hard-boiled businessman – has personally piloted the project into existence and has streamlined his vision for the company. Clue: it doesn’t involve Automobili Pininfarina becoming a Tesla rival.

"This programme will enable us to fulfill our vision of participating at the very pinnacle of automotive design and manufacturing," he told me, ahead of the Formula E race in Rome last weekend (Mahindra has competed in the pure-electric race series since day one). "We believe we can’t stretch the Mahindra brand too far out, nor can you stretch the Pininfarina name too far down. Luxury is the meeting point of heritage and craftsmanship, which is what Pininfarina has. You can’t just create that. It would take 90 years to build what Pininfarina has."

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Mahindra believes that car ownership will follow three paths: an autonomous, electric one in which utility is key and the brand largely irrelevant; cars used for recreational use; and "cars that are bought purely because they are objects of desire, out of passion for performance and beauty".

Clearly, this is where the new Pininfarina hypercar is pitched and while Mahindra acknowledges the scale of his ambition, he’s certainly primed for the challenge. "If you’re aiming for middle-of-the-road goals, you short-change yourself and you’ve already lost the battle. This car is unique and it will be unparalleled in beauty and performance. You have to shoot for that."

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Significantly, Automobili Pininfarina will develop the car with the appropriate partners, unwilling and probably unable to invest the vast sums traditional OEMs spend when developing a major new car (the baseline could be anywhere from £500m to £750m). Remember, Apple designs and brands its products, its manufacturing is out-sourced.

PF0 is due to arrive in 2020. Created under the auspices of automotive royalty and backed by a committed but sensitive investor, this really could be the electric car we’ve been waiting for.